NEW YORK — Joe Borowski threw the final strike and the Cleveland Indians ran onto the infield to start the celebration.
Alex Rodriguez, one leg on the top step of the New York Yankees dugout, the other a step below, stared straight ahead.
The Indians were on their way to an AL championship series matchup with the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees were braced for a showdown with their boss, one that could cost Joe Torre his job.
Believe it, Indians fans. Grady Sizemore homered to put Cleveland ahead for good on the third pitch of the game, then Paul Byrd and the bullpen closed out New York 6-4 in Game 4 Monday night to complete the third straight first-round debacle for the Yankees.
“This team hasn’t had a championship in Cleveland for a long time,” said Kenny Lofton, the veteran who hit .375 for the Indians. “This is just an unbelievable feeling to be able just to start this process again.”
Torre, as much the focus as the teams, sounded wistful in what well may have been in his final night in pinstripes.
“This has been a great 12 years. Whatever the hell happens from here on out, I’ll look back on these 12 years with great, great pleasure,” he said, his voice quavering as he tried to avoid choking up. “The 12 years just felt like they were 10 minutes long, to be honest with you.”
He wouldn’t address his future.
“If I have some options, I’ll look at it because I’m certainly not ready to move somewhere and not do anything,” the 67-year-old New Yorker said.
Cleveland moves on to its first ALCS since 1998, opening Friday night at Boston. The Indians were only 2-5 against the Red Sox this season, but will have aces C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona fully rested for Fenway Park.
The Indians, winless in six tries against the Yankees during the regular season, are seeking their first World Series title since 1948. The NL championship series starts Thursday night with Colorado at Arizona.
The Yankees came in streaking, overcoming a 21-29 start to win the AL wild card. But they were done in by poor pitching, an insect invasion and the latest October vanishing act by Rodriguez, whose bat was quiet until a solo home run in the seventh inning.
The pesky Indians, who wasted a three-run lead in Game 3, chased Chien-Ming Wang in the second and burst ahead 4-0. Byrd kept wiggling out of trouble, and Victor Martinez’s two-run single made it 6-1 in the fourth against reliever Mike Mussina.
Once again, the Indians did their best hitting with two outs. Throughout the series, they were the ones who got the clutch hits.
A day after averting a sweep, New York put runners on in every inning except the eighth. But when it counted, its high-octane offense fell flat once again, with late solo homers by Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Bobby Abreu not enough.
“I got some big outs with guys on base,” said Byrd, who stranded two runners in the first and three in the second.
Borowski worked around Abreu’s one-out homer in the ninth for a save.
A disappointed crowd of 56,315 also might have seen Rodriguez in pinstripes for the final time. A likely MVP during the regular season, A-Rod was largely AWOL in the postseason for the third straight year, striking out with two on in the first and again leading off the third.
Rodriguez, who can opt of his record $252 million, 10-year contract next month, did hit a solo homer off Rafael Perez in the seventh — ending a streak of 57 consecutive postseason at-bats without an RBI since 2004. He finished 4-for-15 in the series and said he hadn’t thought about his big decision.
“One of the reasons I came here was to help this team win a world championship,” Rodriguez said. “I have failed at that. Without a championship, everything else is just numbers.”
Rodriguez is not the only one who may depart. Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens also aren’t assured of coming back, although the Yankees probably will try to keep some, if not all.
Jeter will return, of course. But the hero of postseasons past had just one RBI in the series, hit .176 (3-for-17) and bounced into three double plays.
Pettitte said his decision whether to return will be based partly on whether Torre comes back.
“I hope he stays here and manages forever,” Pettitte said. “No one in the locker room wants to see him go. That’s for sure. … You see him in that office and you really can’t see anyone else.”
Cleveland completed a sorry season for New York’s teams — the Mets swooned with 12 losses in 17 games and missed the playoffs entirely. And with the Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies also knocked out in the first round, television ratings could take a dive.
It was 87 degrees at game time — the hottest Oct. 8 ever in New York City — and the Indians applied heat right from the start.
Wang, battered for eight runs in New York’s opening 12-3 loss, was chased after just three outs — the shortest start of the 27-year-old’s short career.
Sizemore homered on a 95 mph fastball with little sink for just his second shot since Aug. 28. Jhonny Peralta, who hit .467, made it 2-0 when he lofted a two-RBI single to center.
Cleveland loaded the bases in the second on two singles and a hit batter — the Yankees argued that Kelly Shoppach was fouled off his bunt attempt, but umpires decided it hit a hand. That was it for Wang, whose stats will be besmirched with a 19.06 ERA in this series.
Mussina came out of the bullpen to save the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS against Boston but couldn’t do it this time. Sizemore grounded into a run-scoring double play, and Asdrubal Cabrera singled for a 4-0 lead.
Indians manager Eric Wedge was questioned for not using Sabathia on short rest over Byrd on Monday night but Byrd came up big. He allowed runners in every inning but pitched out of jams with his assortment of offspeed stuff.
Time after time, the Yankees failed in the clutch, going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, leaving them at 6-for-28 in the series and making for another winter of discontent in the Bronx.
“One hundred percent, it’s not Joe’s fault,” Rodriguez said.
As A-Rod remained in the dugout, his No. 13 looking as huge and unlucky as Ralph Branca’s across the Harlem River at the Polo Grounds in 1951, Torre walked up the tunnel toward the clubhouse. Thoughts of another season ending early went through his mind.
“It’s such an empty feeling,” he said. “You think it’s going to last forever.”
Notes: The Yankees removed the injured Clemens from their active
roster before the game and replaced him with LHP Ron Villone. … The first two innings took 1 hour, 14 minutes.
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